The Polish lorry driver whose truck was used in the Christmas market massacre was on his way home to prepare Christmas presents with his wife when he was stabbed and shot dead, his family have revealed.

Lukasz Urban, a 37-year-old father-of-one, was killed in the carnage that saw a 25-tonne truck career through Berlin's Breitscheidplatz Square, which killed 12 and injured dozens more.

This afternoon it emerged that he was on his way back to wife Zuzanna and their 17-year-old son when he was attacked. She was too traumatised to identify her husband's body and is said to be devastated at the lack of support from Germany.

The owner of Polish haulage firm, Ariel Zurawski, said: 'She is very distressed, as is their son, and they have had no support from either Germany or Poland. No psychologists, specialists, she is on her own.

'Lukasz's plan was to be home by Thursday and prepare presents for Christmas.'

Scroll down for video

Lukasz Urban (pictured), a 37-year-old father-of-one, was killed in the carnage that saw a 25-tonne truck career through Berlin's Breitscheidplatz Square, which killed 12 and injured dozens more

The boss, Ariel Zurawski, who is also the driver's cousin, said they last spoke at midday but the man's wife had been unable to reach him at 4pm - hours before the incident. Mr Zurawski is pictured above with wife Judyta

Mr Zurawski said the driver - also his cousin - was hijacked and killed by the man suspected of carrying out the attack.

Alarm bells started ringing for the Polish haulage company when the lorry's GPS showed the vehicle was being driven like a 'beginner'.

The 37-year-old driver disappeared after parking his lorry at a depot in Friedrich-Krauze-Ufer and going for a kebab.

Mr Zurawski, said: 'When I spoke to him he was saying it was a strange area of Berlin because it was full of Muslims.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

'Police in Gryfinie showed me the terrible photo of Lukasz. His face was all bruised and had been cut with a knife. You could tell he put up a fight.

'But I do not believe that one man could have killed my cousin. He was a powerful six-foot-two and weighed 130kg. It had to do a group of people.'

For his horrified family, Mr Urban's death comes as a double tragedy after it was revealed that his brother Konrad had taken his own life just three years earlier.

Talking to MailOnline outside his house in the village of Sobiemysl near Gryfino in northwest Poland, Mr Zurawski said: 'This is a double tragedy for the family. Two years ago his brother killed himself.

'Now their father has been taken into hospital suffering from shock.'

A picture shows married Mr Urban smiling in the cab of a lorry, in 2008, confirmed by his boss and cousin, while another image emerged, taken from CCTV, shortly before he was hijacked.

Mr Zurawski had earlier confirmed the drivers death saying: 'Unfortunately the driver is dead. His body was found in the cabin. His last contact was at 3pm when his wife called him.

'However, she couldn't talk because she was at work. She said she would call at 4pm but she was unable to contact him.

'I have not received official confirmation but I had to recognise him and I had to say that he was my driver.

'Stab wounds were clearly seen at the photo which depicted only my cousin's face. It was really clear that he was fighting for his life. His face was swollen and bloodied.

'Police informed me that he suffered a gunshot wound. Despite being stabbed he was shot dead.'

Interior minister Karl-Heinz Schröter confirmed the death as he prepared for a telephone call with the other interior ministers of the 16 states that make up the German republic.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE LORRY WHICH KILLED 12 PEOPLE

Lukasz Urban was driving a lorry, carrying steel from Italy to Berlin

He was due to drop off the load in the German capital, before returning to Poland

At 3pm he was contacted by his wife, who said she would call back at 4pm

GPS recordings show irregular activity, suggesting the engine was being choked at 3.44pm

It's believed this is when the lorry was hijacked but when Mr Urban was killed is not known. Due to marks on his body it's understood he put up a fight

Mr Urban's wife called him back but there was no answer

The lorry travelled short distances before arriving at the market at 7.34pm

At 8pm the lorry was driven forecfully and ploughed into a crowd of people, killing 12 and injuring 48

Mr Urban was found dead in the cabin found with stab and gunshot wounds

The Scania-made lorry is owned by company Arial Zurawski, which is based in Gryfino in northwest Poland (pictured from the company website)

The truck that killed 12 people as it ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin must have been hijacked, according those who know the registered Polish driver

Nine were killed and 50 more injured when the truck careered through the busy square today in a massacre similar to the one in Nice that left 86 dead in July

The lorry was travelling from Italy to Berlin to drop off its load, before returning to Poland.

It had reached the German capital when the hijacking took place.

He said that after reaching his destination in Friedrich-Krauze-Ufe, Mr Urban had parked and gone to get a kebab sandwich, planning to unload his cargo of 24 tonnes of steel parts the next morning.

Around noon, the two cousins spoke. Mr Urban said he was hungry and that there were few Germans in the neighbourhood where he parked, mostly Muslims.

The vehicle's GPS recording showed it did not travel far from when it was hijacked to the moment it crashed.

The readings appear to suggest the lorry was hijacked between 3pm and 4pm, according to Luke Wasik, from the transport firm.

At 3.19pm and 3.44pm failed attempts to start the engine were recorded.

The lorry was then driven in short distances towards the Christmas market before 5pm and then again, just after 5.30pm.

During these short journeys the GPS showed that the engine appeared to be 'choking' - so the company tried to contact the driver to find out what was happening. However, no-one answered the calls.

Mr Wasik told Polish website WP Money: 'It looks as if someone was trying to learn how to drive this. He had problems with its operation.'

The lorry was driven towards the square at 7.34pm. The final GPS reading was at 8pm, when the vehicle turned off its headlights and ploughed through the market, forcefully.

Mr Zurawski described the unusual movements on the truck's GPS that indicate Mr Urban was not in control.

He said: 'The car was started up, turned off, driven forward, then backward. As if somebody inside was learning how to drive.'

Poland's prime minister, Beata Szydlo, said that the Pole was 'the first victim of this heinous act of violence.'

When in control of the hijacker, the vehicle mounted the pavement before speeding through a crowd of shoppers on Breitscheidplatz Square, outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a busy shopping area in west Berlin.

The usually merry streets became scenes of chaos, with people being pulled form under the flattened wooden stalls and others ferried off in ambulances, some tragically under white sheets.

The driver's cousin says he was only making a quick drop-off in Berlin and would never hurt anyone, denying the possibility he was motivated by terrorism in an interview on Polish radio

It came after repeated warnings from various security agencies that ISIS planned to wreak havoc on European countries during the festive season, specifically threatening Christmas markets.

The vehicle left a trail of devastation in its wake, in a chilling echo of the deadly terror attack in the French city of Nice in July - and comes just one hour after the Russian ambassador was shot dead in Ankara.

It's understood the attacker is still at large after security officials admitted they arrested the wrong man this morning.

The vehicle mounted the pavement before tearing through stalls and shoppers in the market on Breitscheidplatz Square, outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the German capital's main shopping area

Police used Twitter to urge locals to stay in their homes and 'check suspicious objects' and encouraged people to use a Facebook safety check loved ones were safe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is 'mourning the dead', while The White House said: 'The United States condemns in the strongest terms what appears to have been a terrorist attack on a Christmas Market in Berlin, Germany, which has killed and wounded dozens.'

The attack is likely to fuel political tensions in Germany, where Merkel's open door policy to Syrian migrants has led to more than a million entering the country over the last 18 months.

The vehicle mounted the pavement before speeding through a crowd of shoppers on Breitscheidplatz Square, outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in west Berlin

It has sent her approval ratings plummeting, particularly after terror attacks in Germany earlier this year, which led several high-profile political allies to publicly turn against her.

Germany has not experienced any mass-casualty attacks by Islamic extremists, but has been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers in the summer that were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Five people were wounded in an ax rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

The vehicle left a trail of devastation in its wake, in a chilling echo of the deadly terror attack in the French city of Nice in July - and comes just one hour after the Russian ambassador was shot dead in Ankara

At least 12 people have been killed and around 48 injured after a lorry ploughed through a crowd of shoppers at a busy Christmas market in Berlin

Mike Fox, a tourist from Birmingham, said 'it was definitely deliberate' as he explained how the large truck missed him by about three meters as it drove into the market, tearing through tables and wooden stands.

Mr Fox said he helped people who appeared to have broken limbs, and said others were trapped under Christmas stands.

British tourist Emma Rushton tweeted from the scene: 'Lorry just ploughed through Christmas market in #berlin.

'There is no road nearby. People crushed. I am safe. I am safe'.

She saw the lorry rush past her at speed and said it could not have been an accident.

She told Sky News she only missed being caught in the chaos because she had climbed up some steps to take a seat.

Ms Rushton said: 'The stall that we bought our mulled wine from was completely crushed. People were tearing off wooden panels to get out.'

Police are now guarding the scene but saying that the situation in Berline tonight is not dangerous, although some areas remain on lockdown

She added: 'It was not an accident. It was going 40mph, it was in the middle of the market. There was no way that it could have come off the road and it showed no signs of slowing down.'

'I heard a big noise and then I moved on the Christmas market and saw much chaos...many injured people,' Jan Hollitzer, deputy editor in chief of Berliner Morgenpost, told CNN. 'It was really traumatic.'

Richard Clarkson, from Brighton, told the Irish Independent he was at a bar called Irish Bar with his friends on the street near were the incident happened.

One of his friends heard a bang. He said: 'I just walked out and I saw the truck, the windscreen was broken, I didn't see any bodies they were very quick to cover them up I think.'

'The word terrorist is being thrown around a lot at the moment and people seem scared.'